Davis execution awaiting SCOTUS

ATLANTA – The planned execution of Troy Anthony Davis has been delayed – for now – until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether it wants to intervene, The Associated Press reported.

It is not clear when the Supreme Court may decide, but it could potentially come this evening.

Davis, 42, was set to be executed at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson for the August 1989 shooting death of off-duty Savannah police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail.

Davis’ execution has been previously postponed three times pending appeals. His supporters have organized countless vigils and marches, contending that he has been wrongly convicted, pointing to a number of prosecution witnesses who have recanted their testimony since the original 1991 trial.

Arguments over the testimony that led to Davis’ conviction and death sentence prompted the U.S. Supreme Court in August 2009 to order a federal court judge to “make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes (Davis’) innocence.”